


"You have no intention of taking a wife?"

by Cutewaves



Category: Magi: Adventure of Sinbad (Anime), Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic
Genre: Dancing, F/M, I binged this series in a week and wrote this in a night, Mahrajan Festival, Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Romance, Slow Burn, within the fic I suppose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-20 10:54:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20674217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cutewaves/pseuds/Cutewaves
Summary: Sinbad has never truly answered the question of whether he would take a wife or not. He's usually avoided it with vague answers about how Sindria is his family, or how it wasn't exactly in the cards for him. His Generals know the truth, however.When Sindria was in need of legal and diplomatic skill, King Sinbad wrote only to one person. He could have invited dozens of skilled diplomats and legal experts, but he was determined to bring Reim Empire Senator Claudia Aurelius back into his life.





	"You have no intention of taking a wife?"

“Ah, there you are!” Sinbad said as Alibaba, Morgiana, and Aladdin approached the dais. “I’d like to introduce you to the Eight Generals.” Sinbad introduced Jafar, Masrur, already standing at his side. Hinahoho approached with one of his children and greeted the three young adventurers. Drakon and his wife were introduced, followed by the bickering Yamraiha and Sharrkan. Pisti laughed at the two fighting, standing just behind Spartos. “They’re either descendants of royalty or refugees from the allied nations, who have been placed into my custody for various reasons. Much like yourself, Alibaba.”

“Hey, Sin?” a new voice came from just down the stairs, approaching the group. “Quit hogging all your generals; they’re off duty right now.” A tall red-headed woman in a short, orange tunic reached the top of the dais and addressed the King of Sindria. Her cropped red hair was plaited in places, but left down in others. She noticed their guests, and they watched as she fluidly straightened out of her casual posture. “Oh! My apologies, I didn’t realize you had company.”

“It’s quite alright. I’d actually like to introduce you. Alibaba, Aladdin, Morgiana, this is Claudia Aurelius, my advisor. She was a Senator in the Reim Empire for a number of years, up until about eight years ago. She’s skilled in legal and diplomatic affairs, but can hold her own with a spear in her hand.”

Claudia inclined her head briefly, clasping her hands behind her back. “I’m pleased to meet you. Sinbad has spoken highly of you three.” Alibaba glanced at her short tunic and sandals.  _ She’s so casual in those clothes, but she doesn’t come off that way at all. I can see why she’s the King’s Advisor. _

“That reminds me, there’s one more thing I need to tell you. During my talks with the Kou Empire, I accepted a certain request from the emperor. It concerns the education of one of their princes here in Sindria. He will be under Claudia’s instruction. You may have mixed feelings about this, but I ask you to just wait and see for now. I trust Claudia’s judgement.” Alibaba tore his gaze away from Sinbad to glance at Claudia, who gave a reassuring smile.

“Alright,” he said.

“Lord Sin, did you settle things with Princess Kogyoku while you were there?” Jafar asked. Claudia shot a surprised and expectant expression at Sinbad.

“Why would I need to do such a thing?” Sinbad asked.

“Yes, Jafar, why  _ would _ he need to do such a thing?” Claudia’s expression was pleasant, but unrelenting.

“Huh?” Jafar stood stunned next to his king.

“Airhead of the Seven Seas,” Masrur muttered.

“Sin, don’t tell me…” Jafar started. Claudia brought her hands from behind her back and crossed her arms in front of her.

“Did you _flirt_ with one of the Kou princesses?” Claudia accused.

“Hey, I went over there for diplomatic reasons!” Sinbad defended himself. “Of course, nothing happened with her,” he reassured his diplomatic advisors.

“Correct,” Claudia said tightly. Many a trade deal and many an alliance were jeopardized by Sinbad’s flirtatious nature. Though, to his credit, many an alliance were made with it, as well. “Alibaba, Aladdin, Morgiana, it was a pleasure to meet you. Please let me know if you need anything while you’re here in Sindria; I’ll do my best to accommodate.” She smiled at the three young adventurers and turned to descend the stairs. Pisti ran and joined her, starting a conversation about one of the dances that was happening later that evening.

“So you still don’t have any intention of taking a wife, then?” Drakon spoke up from a nearby table on the dias as Pisti and Claudia left.

“That’s right, Sinbad!” Hinahoho slammed his drink down on the table. “Kids are great! You should go make tons of your own!” Sinbad stood.

“Ah, I’m not sure it’s in the cards for me,” Sinbad glanced at the women descending the stairs. He picked up his drink and approached the edge of the platform. 

Pisti jumped down a few steps and hopped in place a few times, gesturing excitedly. Claudia burst out laughing at whatever Pisti was saying, her voice carrying, even from so far down the stairs. She was reserved when doing business or greeting allies, but when she was at her most casual, her most relaxed, she could be as loud as Hinahoho. Though Sinbad had also heard her from across a battlefield, yelling at her enemies.

“Besides, what are you talking about? Even if I don’t have kids, I already have so many family members, the people of this country!” He raised his glass to the people watching him below, who cheered at his acknowledgement. Claudia and Pisti turned at the noise. The redhead smiled warmly at Sinbad’s gesture while the younger of the two waved at him.

“Let us bless King Sinbad and the Kingdom of Sindria!” one of the citizens cried. The crowd cheered louder at the declaration. Jafar saw the brief, yet genuine, warmth between the King and his advisor.  _ Not in the cards, my ass. _

* * *

The music picked up in tempo, the drums creating an upbeat pattern that was only matched by the wind instruments’ fervor. Claudia gasped and put her drink down, quickly looking about for one of the generals. She caught Drakon’s eye, at the base of the royal dais.

“Drakon!” she called, waving him over to dance. A smile crossed his face as he pushed off the stone wall. He easily made his way through the crowd, towering above the citizens of Sindria. When he reached Claudia, he took her outstretched hands and began to twirl her while she danced. He didn’t dance much himself, but Claudia had a contagious energy when she put her mind to it. Claudia seemed content to just have a friend dance with her, even if all he was doing was providing a stationary point to dance around.

A comparatively smaller hand took his own. His beautiful wife Saher smiled up at him. “Would you mind?” she asked Claudia. The advisor laughed at the request and motioned for Sahar to cut in.

“Be my guest, my lady!”

Saher grabbed Drakon’s other hand and allowed herself to be twirled about by her husband. Claudia had gone to the trouble to include her reserved husband in the festivities, Saher was going to take advantage of it.

Claudia continued dancing, albeit somewhat slower, looking for another partner who wasn’t currently in the fray. Her eyes landed on Jafar, who was speaking with a few of the Kingdom’s diplomats casually. She cut through the dancers and reached her counterpart.

“Jafar! Have you danced yet?” she asked. Jafar held up his hands and laughed with uncertainty.

“Not yet, but I hadn’t planned to.” Claudia stuck out her bottom lip, playfully pouting. Jafar opened his mouth to continue, but something caught his eye over Claudia’s shoulder. He smiled, just a hint of mischief playing on his lips. “I bet Lord Sin would be up for a dance or two, however.” He indicated to a few yards away, where Sinbad was pouring drinks for a table under one of the awnings.

“Oh!” Claudia said, somewhat caught off guard. “Um, ah, I hadn’t thought to ask him.” She hesitated, not having a reason not to ask her close friend to dance. Jafar seized his moment.

“Let’s go ask him!” Jafar grabbed Claudia by the arm and steered her under the awning. Sinbad laughed distantly at something one of the citizens said as he poured their drink. He noticed Jafar and Claudia’s approach and handed the pitcher off to another citizen.

“What brings you two over here! Surely there isn’t any business to attend to.” It was clear he was genuinely hoping there wasn’t business, as it had happened in the past where he would have to leave his people’s celebration to sequester himself and his generals away to discuss time-sensitive matters.

“Not this time, Lord Sin,” Jafar answered. “Though have you danced yet? Claudia was looking for a partner.”

“Ah-” Claudia started to protest, possibly, but was cut off by Sinbad.

“Sure! I haven’t danced since the last Mahrajan.” He placed a hand on Claudia’s lower back, leading her back out into the crowds. “Let’s go, Miss Aurelius,” Sinbad’s voice lowered, just loud enough for Claudia to hear. Jafar made his way back to his previous conversation, smiling happily as he watched Sinbad flirt himself silly with his secretly most willing participant. Those two had been metaphorically dancing around the idea of courtship since they first laid eyes on each other.

* * *

They had known each other for years. They met when Sinbad was in Reim, fighting Masrur in the Colosseum and weaving his stories for the citizens. Claudia was a year older than Sinbad, having just turned 17 a few months previous. She was quickly approaching election season, where aspiring and current politicians would campaign for a seat in the Senate. Claudia had been studying and training for the Senate since she was a child. Her mother was a Senator, Claudia was expected to follow in her footsteps.

One summer evening, a theater performance was held in the Colosseum for the very first time. Claudia was instructed to make an appearance, to participate in local culture and keep up with the popular trends. A young man named Sinbad had filled up so many seats in the actual theater that people were left waiting outside.

After the performance, Claudia needed to meet this Dungeon Capturer. The young redhead swiftly navigated through the moving crowd, making her way towards the back hallways of the Colosseum. The boy spoke of his dreams, of his comrades and of his adventures. Claudia wanted more. She stopped at the end of the hallway, seeing Sinbad hovering over a young boy with white hair and a smaller child with blue hair.

“Are they okay?” Claudia blurted out. Sinbad looked up.

“I think so; they’re just unconscious, I think.” Sinbad started to reach for the toddler, but Claudia beat him to it. She held the boy close, checking to see if he was hurt.

“The little one is fine. Do you know these kids?” she asked, placing the toddler’s head on her shoulder while he slept. Sinbad nodded.

“This one is one of my friends, and the one you’re holding is the son of another friend of mine. Would you find another member of my group and hand off Kikiriku to them? I can’t do both.”

“Uh, sure,” Claudia agreed. After receiving a description of the other members of his group, she managed to find them and hand over the sleeping child.

Later that evening, she searched the local marketplace for Sinbad’s business. She found Sinbad in a local tavern, and they talked for hours about his adventures. With some coaxing, Claudia spoke of her own plans for change in the Reim Senate. She wanted to revolutionize the empire: eliminate slavery, eliminate the brutish gladiator battles people were forced to participate in, distributing power away from the Magi that had ruled for 200 years and away from the emperor.

“Then why don’t you join my group? We’re going to create our own country and change the world. You sound like you’re passionate about that.”

It was too good to be true. A charming young man with friendly companions and an optimistic but powerful dream to make the world a better place. Claudia told him that by the time he left Reim, she would have an answer for him.

In the middle of campaigning for Senate, she joined Sinbad and his group on their adventures in the empire. She captured a dungeon with them, saved lives with them. She bickered with Sinbad over the silliest things; where the blankets in his shop should be displayed, the shade of blue for his jacket he was having made, whether she could beat him in a fight if he didn’t have his silly magic sword or his pretty little necklace on. Sinbad loved it. He loved every moment he could make Claudia whip around to yell at him in indignation or every time he caused her boisterous laughter.

Soon, though, the time came when Claudia needed to give Sinbad an answer.

Every fibre of her being screamed to join this man in his next adventure, but ultimately, she decided to start her career as a Reim Senator. Sinbad had accepted the news, albeit reluctantly.

The night before Sinbad left Reim, Claudia and Sinbad had stepped outside the tavern, about to go to their respective homes and pretend that there was another adventure together in the morning. They began to pass through one of the alleyways.

“Claudia,” Sinbad gently took the newly elected senator’s arm. She stopped and turned towards him. “You know that you are always welcome with us. I know you have obligations here, but if you ever change your mind…” he paused, and took a breath. “If you ever change your mind, I would be honored to have you at my side.” The young senator’s heart pounded, noting that his hand still hadn’t left her arm, and in fact, had moved down to her wrist.  _ He didn’t… mean it that way, did he? _

“Sin, I…” she sighed. “I want to go with you, more than anything, but there’s things I have to accomplish here first. People I need to help here. I can’t leave them yet, not when I know I can make a real change in the policies of this country. Once I’m done, I promise I’ll come find you.” She moved her hand so that Sinbad was now loosely holding it. “I promise-” Claudia was suddenly pushed against the stone wall and found herself chest to chest with the man she had told herself she didn’t have any feelings for.

“Is this okay?” Sinbad nearly whispered. Claudia took a look at Sinbad’s face, which at first glance seemed confident and flirtatious, but upon further inspection, revealed nervousness at the corners of the mask. The way his eyebrows twitched up hopefully, the way his smile faltered just for a millisecond in doubt, and the genuine warmth Claudia saw in his eyes.

“Yes,” Claudia breathed. Sinbad closed the gap between them, kissing Claudia softly, sweetly, at first until her hand touched the back of his neck tentatively. His lips became more insistent, meeting Claudia’s growing enthusiasm. A moment later, they gasped for air, touching foreheads and trying to keep their fluttering eyes open.

“I,” Sinbad started. He took a few short breaths. “I liked that.” He laughed breathily. Claudia chuckled.

“I did too.”

“Let me walk you home.”

The first and only time Sinbad and Claudia Aurelius held hands was on the way back to Claudia’s home. At the end of her street, Claudia squeezed Sinbad’s hand, and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. As she began to pull away, Sinbad grasped the back of her neck to bring her lips to his. The kiss was bittersweet. A farewell to their past adventures, and a lament that the future ones were years away, if they were to ever exist.

Claudia pulled away first, squeezing Sinbad’s arms as if holding them would stop him from leaving. She took a deep breath, and left him at the end of the street. Sinbad’s group left the following morning, with one unusually melancholic leader.

* * *

Senator Claudia Aurelius was successful; she advocated for change in trade regulations, in expansion efforts, in creating avenues for people to get out of slavery. They weren’t revolutionary, but they were small changes that gave opportunities to free people from the lives they had been dealt. She was also utilized as an emissary to other countries to promote trade and expansion. She was the youngest diplomat outside of the emperor’s own family to be sent to forge alliances.

And one day she received a letter out of the ordinary. It wasn’t unusual to receive letters from Sinbad, they had contacted each other every few months since Sinbad left, but this one was different. Sinbad had created a country. It was expanding rapidly and he needed help. Her legal and diplomatic skills would be crucial to the success of Sindria, he wrote.

Senator Claudia Aurelius did not attend that week’s senate, nor any other future senate. Her house was found in perfect condition, no signs of disturbance. All that was missing was her spear, and perhaps a ship’s journey’s worth of clothes. A resignation letter was found on her desk.  
  


* * *

Since coming to Sindria, Claudia and Sinbad hadn’t rekindled any sort of romantic relationship, much to the generals’ dismay. Stolen glances while they thought the other wasn’t looking, papers handed off a little slower than they needed to be. Nothing substantial. If Sinbad ever did take a wife, she would have absolutely noticed the tension between the two.

Jafar intended to rekindle that flame himself. He had watched the two idiots bicker like an old married couple for eight years, and had watched them flirt for even longer than that. He had felt the sadness and longing radiate off of Sinbad the day they left Reim and in the following weeks, watched him agonize over a letter to invite Claudia to Sindria ( _ “What if she says no, Jafar? She’s indispensable!” _ , ignoring how many other skilled diplomats there were in the world in order to invite the illustrious  _ Claudia _ ), he watched Sinbad’s face light up when the innkeeper told him that he had received mail from the Reim Empire. This had gone on for far too long with nothing to show for it.

* * *

“So, you haven’t danced since last Mahrajan?” Claudia spoke up as Sinbad’s hand propelled her towards the dancing crowd.

“I couldn’t really call it dancing; Yamraiha had a few too many drinks and pulled me into it. I ended up having to take her to bed.” Claudia raised an eyebrow. “Take her to  _ her _ bed! Her  _ room _ , I mean.” Sinbad cleared his throat. His advisor giggled.

“I’m sure,” she said politely. They stopped at the edge of the crowd. Sinbad’s hand left her back. There was a moment of hesitation, where both of them remembered that night outside the tavern and how far away it was from this moment. This moment felt like so much more than a king and his advisor joining in their country’s celebration.

Claudia was suddenly pushed sideways into Sinbad, who put his arm around her back and rested his hand on her hip to steady her. Hinahoho strode past with one of his daughters, looking suspicious but apologizing jovially as he disappeared into the dancing crowd.

The moment of hesitation had passed. Sinbad took Claudia’s hand and led her into the fray. Claudia heard the music start to pick up again and began step in time to the beat. Sinbad was more than happy to join her. He loved every second he could spend with his people, and he loved being able to have Claudia there with him. Unlike Drakon, Sinbad enjoyed dancing and enjoyed the performance even more. It reminded him of his humble beginnings, recounting the story of just his first two Djinns in one of the many Narpolia marketplaces.

Luckily for Sinbad, Claudia enjoyed the performance just as much as he did. It was easy to slip into routines picked up near the border of Parthevia and Reim. The two of them had grown up learning these dances, and to be able to perform them in front of the citizens of their country, of those they kept safe, was an indescribable feeling.

They twisted their arms above their heads and stepped forward in time to the music, mirroring each other. They made eye contact as they stepped, smiling coyly at each other. They reached out and clasped each other’s hand, and stepped in a circle, gesturing towards and away with their other hand. Neither was quite sure who started it, but they began to take quicker steps in between beats as well, dancing a duet they had never practiced but shared through culture and the bond they had forged.

Sinbad let out a laugh as he saw Claudia crouch down in the middle of her dance to twirl with a little boy at the edge of the circle they had created. She turned back to Sinbad and moved in to twirl around him as she had the young boy, but he took her hands and brought her close. They continued to step and twirl, laughing with overflowing joy as people around them cheered and danced with them. As the music came to a climax, Sinbad picked Claudia up by the hips and lifted her to his other side. Claudia, never one to be shown up, attempted to lift Sinbad in return. Off beat to the music, laughing at Claudia’s attempt, he obligingly hopped to the side while her hands were on his hips. The song finished, people cheering and laughing, grinning at each other.

Claudia and Sinbad still clung to each other, unwilling to break the moment they had created together. They breathed heavily, hands grasping the other as if they could freeze time by doing so. The grins would not leave their faces. Claudia laughed, out of breath, and rested her head on Sinbad’s chest. Sinbad chuckled in return and wrapped his arms around her, dropping a brief kiss on her hair. Claudia froze, halting their absentminded swaying. Sinbad went rigid around her, as he realized what he had done.

No one around them seemed to have noticed, or if they did, they certainly didn’t care. Claudia took a breath, and sunk deeper into Sinbad’s embrace. The King of Sindria let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding and held his advisor closer.

Nothing had ever felt so right.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I wrote this in a post-magi haze after binging the entire series in a week when I should be packing for my move. I really loved writing this, so if you enjoyed reading it, leave me a comment! I'm contemplating a series, so let me know what you think!


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